As the act of fishing progressed, so has the equipment commonly referred to as tackle including rods, reels and lures. The tackle of today's fisherman often needs a concerted organizational strategy, particularly for the lures that can number in the hundreds or more considering the avid fisherman. These lures range in design and size appropriate for catching fish ranging in size from those held with a single hand to those weighing more than the fisherman themselves. Regardless of design and size, the number of lures that an individual fisherman may use creates issues with the storage and management of these lures.
The proper management of lures is important, as lures have grown increasingly complex and expensive. The mismanagement of lures can result in costly losses due to damaged equipment, time lost to the searching and untangling of lures as well as posing risk of injury to the user due to sharp and barbed ends.
Some prior art technologies compartmentalize lures in segmented volumes within larger containers to store and organize lures. The problem stemming from this strategy of lure management surrounds the placement and use of such compartments. Compartments are often not large or enough and the user is forced to stuff a large lure into a smaller compartment. Furthermore, the availability of compartments is limited to the size of the container forcing users to place multiple lures into one compartment that can cause tangling or damage to lures. Moreover, compartmentalized storage does not enable display or visible selection of lures, often requiring a user to open each of several a drawers or compartments to view the selection of lures available.
Some prior art technologies use apertures or rods to hang lures by their hook ends. Such solutions are problematic as the hook ends placed over bars or through apertures can be dulled or damaged when contacting other surfaces. The sharp point of a hook and barb, if damaged, require attention for sharpening or reshaping for optimal fishing operation. Furthermore, the storage of hooks using such of a hanging by the hook strategy is prone to inadvertent loss of retention if used in an environment such as on a boat experiencing motion due to the navigation of a body of water. Furthermore, examples of such prior art store lures upside-down, conflicting with their intended configuration when in use and drawn through the water. Prolonged of a lure in an upside-down configuration can affect the form of a lure and how it travels through water when pulled. The form of lures is particularly a concern in the case of lures that comprise pliable materials subject to tangling or plastic deformation when hung by the hook end.
Other prior art technologies use a soft material, such as silicone foam, permitting the embedding of a hook point into the foam allowing the hook to hang. This type of prior art solution shares the same problems as others in that it risks the damage or blunting of the point of the hook and hangs the lure upside down. Furthermore, the barb of some hooks when embedded into the soft material rips apart the soft material upon removal of the hook. Through repeated use, the retention ability of the soft material degrades and as such the chance of inadvertent loss of retention of the hook increases.